Where Your Treasure Is - Kingly Gifts

We start our sermon series in Advent kingly gifts,

where we're going to be looking at the three gifts

the Magi bring, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And during Advent we're gonna reflect,

because that's what Advent is.

It's reflecting and preparing our hearts

for the coming King.

We reflect on the gifts that the Magi brought to Jesus.

We're gonna talk about what that meant

in the first century, what it means for us today.

But it's also gonna be a sermon series about giving.

Now, I don't want you to be cynical about that,

seeing as though we just had a family meeting

about potentially giving and all of that stuff.

Those are not inherently linked,

but they are in some respect that as we prepare

for the coming King, that it's about giving our all.

We see that.

We see that in shepherds leaving.

Ever thought about that?

Leaving their job to go worship the King.

Now, I was not there, neither were any of you.

We don't know if they brought all the sheep to the manger,

but you have angels going, why?

Because shepherds going, why?

Angels told them to go,

not something everyday life of a shepherd.

We see Mary and Joseph, we see the baby Jesus,

we see all the animals, and then we see these Magi come.

They come not from anywhere close to Bethlehem.

They journey because their initial,

their gut interaction, their heart edification

of Jesus being born was to come and to do two things.

We're gonna talk about that this month.

They came to worship, and what that means,

and they came to give.

Now, we're not going to set this up,

and at the last sermon of the year,

announce our pledge drive.

We don't think that would be appropriate,

though that may come in the coming months.

That is not what this is about,

but what it is, it is a reminder for all of us

to ask the question in which, well, kind of a question,

in which I titled this sermon,

which is, where your treasure is, dot, dot, dot.

Dot, dot, and we're gonna be in the book of Matthew

this morning, and what I want us to understand

is the challenge we're all gonna have to start

to examine where we place our treasures in our lives

and how our hearts align with God's kingdom.

And the unique take we're gonna look at

is what the Las Audis has brought up today, is gold.

Now, as Jill and I were finding this today,

to make sure we were ready, it's 24 karat gold,

which I'm gonna highly doubt,

seeing as though we got this on Amazon for $12.

So, but, what it represents is one of the finest

of the Earth's metals, something that has withstood

the test of time, and gold, as we're gonna look at it today,

was a gift fit for a king, pointing to Jesus' royalty.

But how does gold reflect our lives today in 2024?

So let's jump in to the book of Matthew.

Matthew chapter six, for a lot of us that grew up in church,

we know this one, this is a part of the sermon on the mount.

So in chapter five, what Jesus has done,

he's taught us how to pray, he's given us the beatitudes,

and then he goes into these teachings.

So this is kind of coming off of,

you are the light of the world,

you are the salt of the Earth.

And isn't it ironic that part of his sermon,

the greatest sermon ever given,

one of his first major points is about stuff,

about money, about possessions,

because that's not relevant in 2024, is it?

Yes, totally is.

Starting with verse 19 of chapter six,

Jesus says, do not lay up for yourselves

treasures on Earth, where moth and rust destroy,

and where thieves break in and steal,

but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven,

where neither moth nor rust destroys,

and where thieves do not break in and steal,

for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of the body,

so if your eye is healthy, the whole body will find,

will be full of light, but if your eye is bad,

your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then, the light in you is darkness,

how great is the darkness?

No one can serve two masters,

for either he will hate the one and love the other,

or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

Now for some of you, you just started rolling your eyes,

you're like, oh, is this gonna be another sermon series

about giving money?

Friends, that's one of the three things

we're gonna talk about, time, talents, and yes, treasures.

But understand, I'm not bringing it up

for just the sake of bringing it up,

I'm bringing it up because one of the first major points

in Jesus' sermon to us on the Mount is just that,

possessions, if Jesus didn't think this would be worthy

to talk about, I don't think he would have said it.

But we have to reconcile that last part.

You cannot serve God and money.

And I am not here to guilt anybody

who has been very successful in life.

That's not my job at all.

My reminder to all of us to whom much is given,

much is required, hopefully by the end of the month,

more of us will say it, but that a Christian response

to faith is what we do with the time God's given us,

which no one knows how much time we'll have.

The talents, the gifting, we'll get to that with myrrh,

I believe, and then with treasures.

That in the system of the first century church

and of the 2024 church, money is still seen as a priority,

money is still seen as an object of authority,

whether right or wrong, but Jesus wants us

to always remember that everything we have,

first and foremost, is his.

Why?

Because he is our king.

And much like our lives should mimic that of the Magi,

we come to offer our worship and our gifts.

But what is Jesus, how do we gonna break,

we gotta break down some of Matthew six.

So if you can go back to the first slide of this,

he starts off very appropriately,

do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.

Notice how it's not, you're gonna be tempted to do this,

so don't, or for some of you,

you're going to have this problem.

No, it is a clear command from Jesus to us.

Do not lay up your treasures on earth.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.

What Jesus is doing, he's kind of contrasting

earthly treasures.

What he's saying is the things that are temporary,

the things that are perishable.

So what are the things that we're talking about?

We're talking about our stuff,

whether it's the money in our bank account

that our check comes in maybe once a month,

twice a month, weekly, and then we see all of it

go out in the next three days, right?

Some of us have that and we go, where did it go?

That's what he's talking about.

It was temporarily in your bank account, wasn't it?

And now it seems like permanently gone.

But that is something that is the struggle for all of us.

It's something we deal with.

And what he's contrasting is earthly treasures,

temporary perishable to heavenly treasures.

Eternal, and this is gonna sting.

But I'm looking in the mirror first.

Incorruptible treasures.

Well pastor, what are you saying?

Are you saying I have dirty money?

Are you saying that I'm corrupt with my stuff?

I don't know.

Maybe some of you are.

Maybe some of you aren't.

God knows I don't and that's okay.

But understand, Jesus is contrasting something

that is perishable and corruptable

to something that is not.

And I think for all of us we're gonna learn

just how temporary our money is.

That earthly treasures are vulnerable.

That's one of the things we see.

Your stuff, I'm gonna put your time, your talents,

and your treasures though.

Jesus is talking about treasures here.

I could do all three.

Because I think it works.

That our earthly stuff, the things we invest in,

the things that we want to be a part of

or support or whatever,

that they not only are temporary, they're vulnerable.

Moth, rust, thieves.

I'm not gonna get into what moth meant in the first century.

You wanna know what moth meant in the first century?

It's the same thing moth means now.

Those bugs that eat away things in your attic.

There's no like deep meaning.

Moth really means the Holy Spirit.

No it doesn't.

It means moth.

So understand where moth and rust destroy.

So if something is destroyable, that means it's vulnerable.

Something that's everlasting is not vulnerable.

And guess what?

Our money, our success is not everlasting.

Though you may be successful, be a guru in 2024,

that's not gonna, you're not gonna be a guru in heaven.

That's not how it works.

Because the stuff we have vulnerable

where heavenly treasures are secured.

We love it when our money's secured, right?

The banks love it.

When you get your credit check,

they'd rather you have secured debt

rather than unsecured debt

from a much smarter people than I for what they tell me.

That all of a sudden if you have secured debt,

that feels better than unsecured debt.

Even though both are temporary according to Jesus.

Now here's just a disclaimer for the next month.

I in no way am giving you financial advice.

I am by no means your financial advisor

and everything that I'm gonna draw back is to scripture.

And if you have any questions about that, call Paul Katz.

And so understand that if we are seeing

what Jesus is saying, our wealth,

the earthly things are not only vulnerable

but they're temporary.

That means our heavenly treasures are secured

in something different.

That our earthly treasures are secured

in the kingdom of God.

Because you have to place this part of the sermon

in light of the whole sermon he is preaching,

the Sermon on the Mount of the advancement

of the kingdom of God.

So what is he saying about the kingdom?

The kingdom needs people to work in it.

Maybe needs is the wrong word, God doesn't need us.

But the kingdom advances via the work of the Holy Spirit

and the work of the church, time, talents, treasures.

So this is a reminder to invest

and to give in the kingdom of God.

And one of the things we have to remember

is what our temptation is for the opposite.

In good, rooted in reformed thought,

this reflects humanity's temptation toward idolatry,

Romans one tells us, by creating things

that we ultimately worship.

We talked about that last week.

We talked about it at Thanksgiving.

Because he continues, for where your treasure is,

your, what word?

Our heart is also.

So let's work on our Hebrew together.

Heart, leh.

Ready, three, two, one.

Don't spit on the person in front of you,

but it could come out.

Leh, okay, so when you get that V,

it's that guttural in the Hebrew, leh, L-E-V.

Our heart defined is the seat of our will,

our emotions, and our desires.

Sit with that for a minute.

For where your treasure is, your heart will be also.

Our heart is the seat of our, in Hebrew,

because it's not really a verbal language,

it is in a sense.

I didn't just make up how you should say it

and spit on the person in front of you.

But understand, the way Hebrew was designed,

the way Hebrew was used, was kind of pictures.

That it was tied to thoughts and emotions,

and they're saying the heart of a person is the seat,

I love that, of our will, of our emotions, and our desires.

Jesus emphasized that treasures govern the heart.

And if good reform theology tells us

our hearts are declined toward evil,

that means our treasures can be inclined towards evil.

Now, evil can be a very big spectrum of certain things.

I'm just going to stop at, when it's about ourselves,

when we're so wrapped up in money and success and stuff,

that we lose a part of who we are.

Because that money will never define you.

I don't care how successful or how not successful

you are in life.

Money should never define you.

Because if we're gonna link the seat of our will,

of our heart, of our desire,

if that rub is always going to be good versus bad or evil,

then we wanna lean on the side of good.

Though we are naturally inclined towards sin,

we can be reoriented by grace.

Why, how?

Because the healthy eye, in verse 22 and 23,

symbolizes a single-minded devotion to God.

The healthy eye.

Biblically, what the readers would have understood

is that healthy eye sees clearly and is devoted to God.

It's a mind that is all about the vertical relationship.

And maybe you know some people that are like that.

Maybe there are people in your life who go,

I really wish my life looked more like so-and-so's.

I would say this if he was here,

though it would probably cause him to blush.

It's one of the things I love about our pastor, Jamil,

is every time him and I get together,

I learn even more from his heart.

That vertical relationship so instilled and ingrained

in a guy that I look up to so much.

Now, does he sin?

Does he struggle?

That's the first one to tell you.

But one of the things I see in him

is that single-minded devotion, and I love it.

And it changes me when him and I get together.

Because it's contrasted with the bad eye.

You have a healthy eye, you have an unhealthy eye.

What is an unhealthy eye?

It is an eye that is divided.

It has what I like to call divided loyalties.

And I think that's where the first conviction

really comes in, is what am I loyal to?

I think we'd all agree we're probably loyal

to our bank account, we're probably loyal to our savings

of watching the stock market,

of all of these investments, or what have you.

But a divided loyalty brings an unpure, unhealthy eye.

It is no longer a lamp of the body in Christ,

it is a lamp of the world.

A heart captivated by earthly treasures,

clouds our spiritual perceptions.

Feel free to take me up on it.

For the next month, maybe there are some of you

that one of the first things you do

is jump on your bank accounts.

You look at your investments, that you start your world

looking at your finances.

I'm gonna challenge you this month.

Yes, on the month you do a lot of shopping,

start with God's word first.

Read the Sermon on the Mount

throughout this month of December.

See when our priorities and our vision change,

when it centers on something different,

it's funny how God changes us,

how he gives us new eyes to see and new ears to hear.

Because ultimately, Jesus drops the mic

at the end of these sets of verses,

you cannot serve God and money.

So if he didn't hit it so hard in the beginning,

he's hitting it now out of the park

in the sense of who are we serving in life?

And if we're serving, if we're at the beck and call

of our money, it's always gonna go like this.

Even if you're super successful and wealthy.

Because you've tied yourself to that.

You serve your finances first.

Jesus calls that out.

That if the Lordship of Christ is over all aspects of life,

divided allegiances, divided attention,

divided worship, is a failure

and a betrayal of our allegiance to God.

Wow, Jim, that was really heavy handed.

I don't mean it to be, but it's exactly,

if Satan thinks, or if Satan can try to get you to think

you got a handle on all of it, you don't need Jesus then.

He's not gonna come out and say that right away.

But if life is always good because you got the money

in your bank account, all of a sudden it just gets

one maybe pinky finger comfortable with that,

and Satan will play the long game with you.

Even though we saw in Revelation that his time's running out,

he will play the long game with you,

even in the late chapters of Revelation as we learned.

So why gold?

I think we'd all agree, just blind survey.

If I can offer you gold, frankincense, or myrrh this week,

how many of you are taking the myrrh?

Thank you, Jenna.

How many of you are taking the frankincense,

and half of you are thinking Frankenstein,

and I can't help you?

Maybe one, two, good to see you back, my friend.

Glad you're here.

How many of you are taking the gold?

Those that didn't raise their hand either wake up

and stop lying.

We take the gold every time.

Why, because gold was the most expensive of the metals.

Gold in the ancient world symbolized kingship,

wealth, and deity.

You wore a gold chain, right?

People automatically thought things about you.

They thought you were of high status.

They thought you were royalty.

Now, for some of you, if you walk in your house

and it's gold everywhere, they may think that,

or they may think you are stuck in the 80s

and you can't get out of it.

But either way, gold is a stature thing.

You're walking down the street and you see, right,

someone big gold earrings, big gold chain.

We think all kinds of things.

I go up to them and say, can we sell half that

so we can build our building?

I don't, I don't say that to random people, that's weird.

But understand that gold catches our attention.

If someone walks into the church today

and they're wearing a bunch of gold,

someone walks into the church

and they're doused in frankincense or in myrrh,

two are gonna catch your eye for very different reasons

than the other, because they're gonna smell weird.

The gold people looked good.

Understand it was Davidic.

It was divine.

Gold was seen as kingship, wealthy, deity.

People thought certain things.

So what does the Magi's gift of gold mean for us today?

It means something very simple.

And allow this, if you will, Childlike Faith, three, two, one.

Allow this to blow your mind this week,

because then you're where I am.

That the Magi's gift to Jesus of gold

acknowledged this baby, this baby in a manger,

this nothing king was a recognition of his lordship.

To fulfill Psalm 72, to fulfill Isaiah 60, right?

These prophecies talking about Messiah, capital M,

the gold was meant to acknowledge him,

this baby as king of kings and lord of lords.

The shepherds didn't bring it,

because the shepherds didn't have that to bring, right?

Whoever tended the inn or the manger that was there

didn't bring it, because it was not theirs to bring.

That Jesus was to be worshiped by the wisest

of the kings of the world as a little baby.

A heart of gold, a heart of worship that we see.

In biblical history, giving gold was an act of reverence.

Exodus 25.

Gold was brought as reverence to the tabernacle,

the place of God in the Old Testament.

Now the temple in human form.

Now gold is being brought to a lowly manger, to a baby.

It's unbelievable what that gold represents.

So what does it really mean for us?

Where is your gold in your life?

Where's the treasure in your life?

Couple applications that we have for today.

The first thing, and I love that it's December 1st.

We have a month, 24, 25 days,

until Jesus comes onto the scene.

So one of the things I want to challenge all of us,

and we'll break this into a post this week,

is to examine your heart.

Examine your l'ech, right?

Examine what is going on inside of you.

What captures your attention, your time,

and your energy?

Because Jesus reminds you where your treasure is,

your heart is also.

Treasure being time, talents, treasures, right?

Calvin reminds us in his institutes,

the human heart is a perpetual idol factory.

I love when Calvin says that.

So his encouragement to us in the start of that event

is to surrender our idols of wealth,

our idols of comfort, our idols of security,

and put them in Christ.

Because if they're not in Christ,

we saw this for 13 weeks,

it will be against Christ in the end.

Second, invest in eternal treasures.

Use your time, talents, and treasures

for the kingdom of God.

And here's the thing,

we all can give all three of these.

We see that in the scriptures,

whether it's the two mites of the widow,

or the wealth of the wealthy,

people can give in all of those kind of ways.

Where next week, we're going to see

the treasures of our lighthouse staff.

Love it on our kids.

And I know there are some of you already nervous

about what your kid is gonna be like next week.

We got a little preview of that at Thanksgiving.

And that's just even more exciting

to see that childlike faith of how they worship,

of how they're bringing something,

even as kids, to the king.

They're bringing their time, their talents.

Now, this is the gospel according to Jim.

Those that work in children and youth ministries,

I do not believe your room in heaven

will be by the ice machine.

Because that is a special gift.

So maybe Daniel, we can use that as incentive

for finding youth workers in the future.

Your room will not be by the ice machine.

Stamped, the elders of Munster Church.

But understand that we are to invest in eternal treasures.

Commit to prayer.

Spend time in the word.

Time, talents, and treasures.

Time is with you and Jesus first.

It can't be you and the church first,

because if you don't have it, you can't give it.

Spend time with Jesus first.

Commit to prayer, to reading scripture,

to serving others during Advent.

Talents, leverage your God-given gifts

for the church and the community.

Or that's your talents, leverage your God-given gifts

for the church and the community,

and then finally your treasures to live sacrificially,

to support the ministries around you.

Is Munster Church one of them?

I hope so if you're a member.

I hope it is.

But there are many different kingdom causes around.

Understand that your treasures mean something

for where your treasure is, your heart,

the seed of all that you are will be also.

Examine, invest, and live generously.

Reflect God's generosity, for God so loved the world he gave.

Advent is a time to mirror Christ's sacrificial giving

by the reorientation of our hearts.

Because maybe, just maybe, the last 11 months,

your heart's been pulled all sorts of places.

Your soul's been pulled in all sorts of places.

It's time to right the ship this Advent season,

preparing for the coming of the Christ child.

So what is our gospel focus gonna be for Advent?

The first truth is one we live out,

that Christ is the ultimate treasure.

Our remembering that Jesus left the riches of heaven,

2 Corinthians 8, to redeem us and bring us

into God's kingdom.

You are worth the investment, Jesus says.

And finally, our response to his grace,

his wholehearted worship and generosity.

So what's our challenge this morning?

You're gonna get one each week.

We're gonna get a challenge

or we're gonna get an encouragement.

The challenge, this Advent,

consider what treasures rule your heart.

Recommit to seeking after God's kingdom first.

And then my encouragement for all of us,

as the Magi offered their gold to Christ,

offer your life, your heart, your time,

your talents, and your treasures,

wherever your gold is,

offer that to the king of.